Porsche make it eight poles out of eight

Porsche secured a clean sweep of pole positions in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship earlier today, taking yet another one-two at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber need to finish third in tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Bahrain to take the drivers’ title, and the trio ensured they have the best possible starting point by taking pole in the 20-minute qualifying session. Bernhard, Hartley and Porsche teammate Marc Lieb in the #18 machine were the only drivers to break the two-minute barrier in a relatively quiet qualifying session.

The #7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer will start from third position on the grid, ahead of the #8 sister car of di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis. The two Toyotas followed in fifth and sixth, with the Rebellions getting the better of the ByKolles machine in LMP1-L.

In LMP2, things were a little tighter, with the #36 Signatech Alpine mixing up the championship battle and taking pole position. Close behind was the #26 G-Drive racing car of Roman Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal, which currently leads both the drivers’ and teams’ championships. Despite a late rally from Nick Tandy in the #47 KCMG Oreca, the Hong Kong-entered team will start the 6-hour race from third position on the grid. KCMG will know that only a class win will do if they are to have any chance of taking home the championship titles.

GTE qualifying began in darkness, with a complete floodlight failure at the track bringing out a red flag. The session started after a short delay, and the Aston Martins showed good pace early on, reinvigorated after pre-race balance of performance adjustments.

In GTE-Pro, however, it didn’t take the Ferraris long to get up to speed, and the #51 AF Corse machine of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander posted a provisional pole time as the second drivers turned their laps. The two-lap average of 1:58.347 proved impossible to beat, and so Bruni and Vilander will start tomorrow’s race from the front of the grid. Aston Martins rounded out the top three, with the all-Danish #95 car pipping the #99 machine to second.

In GTE-Am, the #98 Aston Martin Racing team secured their fifth pole position of the season, with the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette the closest competitor almost half a second behind. Championship leaders SMP Racing will start from third and essentially just need to avoid a DNF to take home both drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles. SMP’s closest rivals, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, will start the race in fourth.

Share this Post

Our website uses cookies to record the number of visitors anonymously. By closing the banner you accept the use of our cookies. If you do not agree to the use of our cookies, please click here to exclude yourself directly from the measurement. You can find further information on this topic in the imprint under privacy policy.